Solar and battery replacement

[davet1]

Hello all,
New to motorhomes, we have Chausson 97 allegro. Having just made several tests thanks to the info on here I have discovered the solar panel is shot. it's a bright sunny day and shows 9.5 volt open circuit voltage and practicaly zero amps on short circuit test. Also the battery drops from fully charged 13.4v to 12.3v in the last 4 days; There is a minimal parasitic draw of 100- 200 ma, I think this is from the control panel which has to be on for the solar to work. So, the question is how big a panel and what type should i go for and also battery Ah . I'm looking at a gel type.
We have mainly used electric hook up with an occasional night without, but would like to have the ability to have more flexibilty without a hook up. The current battery is 95 ah AGM type but can go bigger in the space provided and may upgrade to gel type.
Any advice gratefully received !

 

[berni109]

200 Watt minimum
Decent mppt controller with trickle charge to the vehicle battery.
Gel battery.

It's a slippery slope to an expensive upgrade to electrical system for change to lithium on a 97 van.

 

[Lenny HB]

It's a slippery slope to an expensive upgrade to electrical system for change to lithium on a 97 van.

Just done Tam's (Northernraider) van cost him just under £2k just for the bits and that was only with 100ah Lithium. A professional install would probably add 1-2k to the bill.

Edit:-
Chausson 97 allegro, is the model not the year.

 

[Lenny HB]

Gel battery would be a far better choice than AGM but does your charger support Gel?

 

[MisterB]

Start off slowly but don't spend money on something you might replace later. I wouldnt rush into the project. Take your time and try to pick bits up second hand/pre used. There's always stuff on eBay or in the classifieds here. I would start with adding solar, as much as you can get on the roof or even a folding solar panel. Try to pick up a mppt controller if you can but don't worry if you cant for now. Next stage (although if you're battery is goosed it might be the first thing you do) replace your battery. Ideally spend the money and go for lithium. It's the big bucks item but no point spending £150 on a battery that you could put towards a lithium. There are often pre loved non lithium batteries on here, so that might help the budget initially before you take the plunge!
Whichever way you go, don't be in a rush ....

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[davet1]

Just done Tam's (Northernraider) van cost him just under £2k just for the bits and that was only with 100ah Lithium. A professional install would probably add 1-2k to the bill.

Edit:-
Chausson 97 allegro, is the model not the year.

well I should have said it's a 2008 model

 

[davet1]

Gel battery would be a far better choice than AGM but does your charger support Gel?

 

[davet1]

Good point re the charger. it's a CB516 max 16A and it mentions gel, so looks ok

 

[denisejoe]

Before spending out any money disconnect the wires from the solar controller then connect the battery first then the solar it maybe someone has mucked about with them and that will tell the controller what the battery is

 

[PhilandMena]

I have just fitted a 250W Panasonic hit SP and a Tracer 20 amp mppt solar regulator from photonic universe. https://www.photonicuniverse.com/en...-panel-with-high-efficiency-N-type-cells.html
I have also fitted 2 Leoch pure carbon lead deep cycle AGM leisure batteries. I already have a 125W SP connected to the Sargent system via a 10 amp tracer mppt solar controller.

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[autorouter]

Also the battery drops from fully charged 13.4v to 12.3v in the last 4 days;

Be careful of using a single voltage reading to indicate the state of charge of the battery. A fully charged AGM battery will have a resting voltage of about 12.8V. Anything higher than that shows that something is charging it. The charger forces the voltage above 12.8V, which means you can't tell if the battery is full or flat. When the charger is switched off, it can take an hour or more for the voltage to drop to the resting voltage.

For the choice of battery type, it depends on why you want to upgrade the battery. Do you want to keep using much the same devices in the same way, but want the battery to last for longer? Gel batteries are great for this. Do you want to add things like an inverter to run high power devices? Gel batteries are not so good for this, better to choose lithium which can take a higher discharge amps.

 

[autorouter]

There is a minimal parasitic draw of 100- 200 ma, I think this is from the control panel which has to be on for the solar to work.

If you are adding a bigger panel then it's a good idea to wire the controller straight to the battery. If you get a dual controller it can charge both batteries. Then you can turn off the control panel. 100 - 200mA is typical for this control panel, but it's a large drain current by any standards. The residual drain current in a car is much less than 50mA. It can get to the point in winter when the solar is making less than that required to power the panel.

The alternative to a dual controller is a single controller, plus a battery maintainer like the Battery Master, which trickle-charges the starter battery from the leisure battery

 

[Dazzola]

It can be done much cheaper, I used a craig solar 200w panel, a renogy mppt/ b2b and cables, I think it came to £400 for the parts all in.
A lithium battery for maybe £500 would get you sorted for less than a grand?